Island in the Sun - Part 2

Of course, it didn’t rain all the time we were there and we were able to go back to Brown Lake another day and appreciate it in the sunshine! You can really see how the tea tree colours the water and it was a much more relaxing swim this time, although we were serenaded continually by some very loud frogs and toads!!

Having managed to survive the waves on Deadman’s Beach, in spite of getting completely dumped on more than one occasion, it was a relief that Salini suggested going to Cylinder Beach which she insisted would be a lot calmer. After a nerve wracking climb over the rocks to get to the beach (we later discovered there were actually some steps we could have gone down at far less risk of falling off!) I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the water was beautifully flat and perfect for swimming, although sadly half the beach had disappeared as the tide was coming in. So I was happy to go for the best swim of my time on the island until I got to the point of feeling a searing pain on the back of my knee and realised that I had been stung by a jellyfish!! I don’t think it was a bluebottle but it did really hurt!

The lovely calm Cylinder Beach!

Ouch!

Trying not to make too much of a fuss, I got out of the water pretty smartish to inspect the damage and to get advice about whether or not you really should get someone to wee on jellyfish stings to take the pain away! I was relieved to hear that all the Australians thought this was unnecessary and once MZ had stopped laughing at the fact that it was typical that it was me to get stung out of everyone there and had taken a picture, I was able to sit down and nurse the pain! In case you were wondering, vinegar was prescribed by everyone as the cure, but as we didn’t have any I just settled for iced water. I managed to survive the experience and by the next day the sting had virtually disappeared and as I hadn’t at any point fallen into a poison induced coma I thought I came out of it pretty well!!

As MZ mentioned, the sea in Straddie does seem to contain a lot of wildlife! We were even informed of the fact that you can be bitten by sea lice, another bug I’d not heard of but thankfully we managed to avoid these! We did however see loads of dolphins whilst we were there, big pods of them would swim offshore on most days, and we got up early one morning to go on a beautiful walk round the Gorge before breakfast (it was so hot it was impossible to lie in past 7.00am!). We even saw a turtle swimming and came across some more kangaroos! Michelle of course managed to continue to recklessly ignore any warning signs and went right to the edge of the cliffs but the views were spectacular!

Note that she has gone past the sign!

Our enjoyment of our time on the island was increased by making new friends and meeting up with old ones again. For a few days we were joined at our beach house by a lovely couple called Danny and Sarah Ang, a welcome addition, particularly for Brad as he was able to have another guy to do ‘guy things’ with and who didn’t make him watch period dramas or chick flicks with! It also meant that we had two guys to do the bbq and the annoying jobs like taking the rubbish out! They managed to arrive at our place without any mishap, which can’t be said for our old friends in the form of Hayley and Neeka!

Brad and Danny do 'man' things!!!

To give them their due, apparently they had actually checked when the ferries were running over to the island but they had been sadly misinformed and what should have been quite a straightforward journey over to see us on xmas day, ended up including a 4 hour wait at the ferry terminal as they decided not to run any ferries over the whole of the lunch period! During that time poor Hayley got a little sunburnt and by the time they got to us they were just grateful to have arrived, as the whole journey had taken them 8 hours! However, a bottle of cold bubbly later, things were looking a lot better and it was great to be able to see Neeka and to settle back into reminiscing over old times.

It was sad to say goodbye to Neeka and Straddie the next day, but who knows, maybe we’ll all be back there for a reunion tour next year!!!

The Beach House gang

Farewell! Until next year...

Island in the Sun - Part 1

We’ve just arrived safely back from North Stradbroke Island (“Straddie” to the locals – of which we virtually are now on the basis that we’ve seen more of Queensland than the natives – Hayley!!)

We hired a beach house with Brad and Salini which overlooked Deadman’s Beach (personally one of my fave beaches on the island – aptly named because they found a skeleton on it in the 1950’s that they believe was the victim of a shipwreck at the turn of the century!)

As most of you that have been to Australia know, it is a very different beach experience here to when you go to Sardinia – no gentle paddling in the total wave free Med whilst showing off your latest sparkly bikini – going to the beach here basically involves getting totally soaked and usually dumped at least a couple of times by the huge waves, whilst manfully trying to maintain your dignity – let alone your bikini – whilst avoiding being hit by surfers, pulled out to sea by a strong rip or stung, bitten, maimed by one of the many animals that seem to inhabit the ocean!!

Seeing as Kz doesn’t really like to go in when it’s as flat as a mill pond with no discernable creatures present you can imagine her delight when she had lots of warning signs awaiting her as she stepped on to the beach! However, when you get used to the waves, they provide so much more entertainment on the beach and the beautiful beaches are totally worth it!

Brad and Salini also wanted to show us that Straddie isn’t all about the beaches but has some lovely lakes too – as long as you are prepared to 4WD to get there! So we ventured off on our first morning to Brown Lake, so called because of the tea tree oil in it, not a nice colour but makes your skin very soft!

Unfortunately as we arrived I was convinced it was starting to spit with rain, only for my concerns to be brushed aside so we went for a swim – just as a monsoon started!! Still, not many people that have been to Straddie can say that they swam in the lake in the pouring rain!

We indulged in a number of 4WD expeditions whilst on the island, with Salini and I both taking turns, (to the fright of the other passengers!). Apparently the key to it is to let your tires down so that you don’t get stuck in the sand – I had a go along Main Beach which was fun – before handing back to Brad, the expert, with some interesting results!!

A local speciality, seafood wise, are Moreton Bay Bugs – vile looking things that were put at the bottom of the sea for a reason, however we were assured they were lovely so one night we bought some and cooked some up! And yes, even I tried some – I think I can probably live without repeating the experience although to be honest, all I could taste was garlic!

Pineapple fields forever..

Phew - its hot!! Sorry - you can all glare at me through your computers if you like!!

I think 'random' is the best word that describes our time in Brisbane, or more correctly, Redcliffe so far!! Hayley didn't want us to have a typical Queensland experience so has been thinking up some of the slightly more unusual places to take us to!

On Saturday we went into the Queensland Hinterland - up into the hills, to grey sky and slight drizzle! (although still very warm!!) to search out quaint (or as quaint as anything can actually be in Australia!) little gift shops and afternoon tea in Maleny and Montville.

Then we headed to my personal highlight of the afternoon - the Big Pineapple!! For any of you that have ever been here you will know that size really is everything to the Aussies and there is a whole tourist trail of 'big' things to see from shrimps and rams (we nearly went to see the big ram in WA but it was 30km in the wrong direction so even we weren't that stupid!) to pineapples!! We even had to go down the Bruce Highway to get there, ha ha!

It's huge!!

I still can't resist climbing big things!

At the Big Pineapple you can even go on a little train ride round the plantation and they tell you lots of interesting facts about pineapples before you climb the big one! So here are my two interesting facts - pineapples take over 18 months to grow and once picked they don't ripen any more - so there is no point leaving it out on the kitchen table for a few days to sweeten up because it really won't! Fascinating, eh!

With Mummy and Daddy Brock on the Pineapple Express!

From the Big Pineapple we drove past Australia Zoo - cue massive pictures of Steve Irwin holding a crocodile! - to the Ettamogah Pub, which has to be one of the most hilarious Australian experiences, typifying everything Australian (its even right by Aussie World, if you want more of a fix!)

After the meeting yesterday (and the 20 minute public talk!!) Brad and Salini came down to join us! We caught up over date scones and bubbly and then headed over to Scarborough Boat Club (sounds a lot grander than it actually is!) to look over the great view of the harbour and some of the gorgeous boats whilst sipping our drinks to a backdrop of the Sunday entertainment which consisted of a guy and girl (think Same Difference off the Xfactor but dark) singing classics such as 'the birdie song' (and yes, they were encouraging people to do the actions - I had a sudden flash back to dancing around the front room at my grandparents house to this when I was about 5!), the Macarena and the Nutbush! As Hayley aptly pointed out - money doesn't buy class!!

Kz and I then went and did three hours streetwork this morning in 34 degree heat so are fully intending spending the rest of the afternoon sitting under the fans with a nice cold jug of water!!

Wild Thing...

I write this blog today from a very humid bedroom at the lovely Hayley Brock's house, having arrived safely in Queensland. You can definitely feel the difference here from WA, things stay very sticky here even at night and Michelle's hair is just getting bigger than ever! As Hayles, would say - shes WILD!!!

Our last day in Perth was a great day though as we had a truely wild experience going swimming with dolphins down in Rockingham. We'd had to get up at an extremely early hour of 6am to drive down there for a 7.30 start, so with a very grumpy Zannah in tow (due to me making really rubbish coffee as I had a slight mishap with the very complicated coffee machine) we managed to find our way down the freeway to the jetty.

Annoyingly we didn't actually end up leaving on the boat until gone 9am by the time we had gone through safety briefings, the awful experience of trying to get a wetsuit on - they really are the world's greatest leveller, I defy anyone to really look good in one - and waiting for a bus of japanese from the city to arrive.

However, we eventually got kitted up and were ready to go:

Trying to pretend I wasn't scared at the the thought of sticking my face in the water!

So you drive around on the boat looking for groups of dolphins and then they send you into the water in groups, where you snorkle along as most of the action with the dolphins is under the water. Its very important not to splash and kick as this disturbs them, so you sort of form a train and are pulled along rather than swimming, so its actually very easy. After a couple of false starts where the dolphins swam off before we got to see them, which gave me a chance to get used to snorkelling again and not having a panic session whilst telling myself that I was being pathetic (Naomi it was snorkelling in Mexico all over again!) we went in and swam with the most amazing group of between 30-40 dolphins, mostly young males. They were playing around underneath the water and were so close you could see the scars on their backs from fighting each other, although you had to resist the temptation to touch as this can harm them.

Not hugely clear I know but gives you an idea how many there were!

Flipper!!

As the first group in each time we seemed to get the better part of the deal. We had another really amazing swim with a different group of dolphins that were feeding. One of the techniques they use to find food is by following bull rays around and basically stealing the food from them. So we swam above the rays (which were about 5 and a half feet across) and with the dolphins too.... the only problem with this was the constant mantra of 'Steve Irwin' running through my head, which spoilt my enjoyment somewhat!!! But it was amazing and a great experience, including when the dolphins would follow the boat and play in the wake, jumping in and out of the waves and generally having fun - I fully recommmend it!

In the evening we had a lovely final meal out with Mark and Jodi and a couple called Tony and Christine out in Freo, at a place called Little Creatures, which has its own micro-brewery! It was a great place and I particularly enjoyed the Pipsqueak cider! It was a brilliant way to end our time in Perth and we were sad to say goodbye to everyone, including Zannah, who we safely saw off to NZ, and then we got the chance for an impromptu tour of Perth by night as MZ managed to go wrong on the way home from the airport, inspite of the route being one single straight road (don't ask!!). So thank you again Mark and Jodi for your great hospitality, we'll probably be back in a couple of years!!! And now its time for the east coast to get a bit of Ziebart love... xx

Up and Down and Back Again

7th/8th December 2009

We managed to survive the night in Albany in our not so fragrant accommodation and woke up to skies that were still quite overcast but at least didn't have rain pouring out of them. After a very grumpy conversation with Zanna (which was completely understandable when you accept the fact that she'd been unable to have coffee as there wasn't even a coffee plunger at the place!) we all made an executive decision that we would cut our time in Albany short and return back to Perth that day, rather than stay another night. We'd always planned for Albany to be a beach day, but even as hardcore English girls we couldn't find the weather hot enough to make that happen.

Before we left we thought we'd check out the Blow Holes, another natural phenomenon along the coastal road that had absolutely no safety precautions attached to it. It was quite a pleasant walk along the cliff path and you could tell that when the sun comes out in the area then the beaches would have looked amazingly as they were all made up of white sand and turquoise water. But sadly, in the spirit of the last 24 hours, when we got to the blow holes, conditions weren't actually horrible enough to make them 'blow' and as I didn't think it was worth while practically falling off a cliff to see them we gave up.

MZ once again showing a blatant disregard for life and limb!

Our other main point of interest before we returned to Perth was the Whale World Museum, as Albany is famous for its whaling history. However we got there and checked it out and decided that we weren't hugely interested in learning how they used to boil the blubber off the whales and cut them up for meat, so we headed back to the freeway. On our way we saw the following sign which kind of summed up our mood!!

As we headed North, the weather gradually got sunnier and hotter, the skies cleared and our moods improved considerably! The drive home made us wonder though how anyone lived in some of these places (we would see a place signposted and think it was quite a main village, only to drive through it and realise it consisted of a petrol station and a general store!) But we were able to finally get some decent coffee and cake and made it back to civilisation.

This was great because getting back early allowed us to go on the ministry (just like London, lots of intercoms and not at homes!) to the meeting (a whole local needs on Swine flu and the importance of using hand sanitiser if you shake the hand of someone you don't want to!!) and to Cottesloe Beach.... plus to wake up bright and early for our dolphin experience.... xx

A thousand trees!

Sunday 6th December

So I’m sitting here writing this watching the rain lash down over Princess Royal Harbour in Albany! There’s something so wrong in having to write the ‘R’ word!

We left Pemberton this morning and drove through the many national parks that make up the road to Albany.

Along the way we stopped at the Giant Tingle Tree just outside of Walpole and that’s when the weather all went down hill - a slow drizzle started and the temperature dropped (it felt like we were in Nz already!!)

Carey - this one is for you!!

The Tingle Forests (I know, sound like they should be out of Enid Blyton!) are huge and because the trees have a very shallow root base rather than the normal deep roots so many of the trunks seem to split apart to spread the weight out! The Giant Tingle Tree has a girth of 24 metres and apparently is the largest girthed living eucalypt in the world!! It’s very difficult to get perspective without seeing it but hopefully this will help!

From there we carried on to the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. This is a 600 metre walk that takes you 40 metres above the tingle forest – although in slightly less precarious circumstances than the Gloucester Tree of yesterday! The views are brilliant and as you bounce along the bridges you can make yourself feel really sea sick (or maybe that’s just me!) so it’s two effects for the price of one!

By this time Zanna felt that she’d had more than enough nature to last her a life time so we decided to carry on to Albany.

I’d had high hopes for our accommodation in Albany but I really think that the person that did the website for the place needs to be sued for misrepresentation! What looked in the pictures like a really modern cottage is a run down and old fashioned cottage, which smells either of damp dog or fish from the harbour its overlooking (I can’t decide which!) and could do with a thorough scrub!! We’ve spent the last half hour going round spraying our perfume to try and disguise the smell!!

So for now, all there is to do is cook a nice dinner and snuggle on the sofa with a cheesy film for the evening with the hope that everything will look better in the morning once the sun is hopefully back out!!

Feed the Tree

5th December 2009

Still without wireless, and mobile phone reception for the vast majority of the time I write this blog whilst playing an endless game of Scrabble (one I am currently winning!!) and rejoicing in the fact that we survived today’s intrepid endeavours, hoping that at some point we’ll get back to civilisation and find the opportunity to post it!

For those of you that MZ and I discussed the trip with before we went, today was finally the day when we went to find the infamous Gloucester Tree. For those of you to whom that means nothing, the Gloucester Tree is a famous karri climbing tree in Gloucester National Park. Originally used as a fire look out point, it has been pegged all the way up to a look out platform some 60 metres in the air – to put that into perspective that’s roughly the same height as the Monument in central London – so that’s quite high!! The amazing thing about this tree is that anyone can turn up and climb up to the platform if they so desire – there are absolutely no safety measures in place, no ropes or nets to tie you on, no one giving you a hard hat in case you fall and no discernable way for your friends to call for help if you did fall and needed an ambulance as you are in the middle of a forest with no real phone signal. No the only precaution that the Australians feel is necessary is basically a sign that can be summed up to read – ‘This is a very tall tree, so try not to fall mate’! As you can tell, this was far from the controlled environment that I like around me when attempting something potentially hazardous.

When we got there we saw a lady sitting on the bench at the base, looking up at the tree and the fast retreating legs of her husband as he quickly disappeared into the branches above. ‘Not climbing the tree then?’ we asked her. ‘No, I’m happy to sit down here. He doesn’t care – he sky dives, organised the aerobatics for the Millennium Dome, and is Scottish….’ She replied, as if that explained so much. Although come to think of it, the Scottish probably aren’t hugely known for assessing the risks of a situation before blithely jumping in with two feet…

So we thought we’d give it a go (me in the middle in order to be cajoled up when I had panic attacks) but I’m sad to say, one by one we all gradually got cold feet and gave up at various intervals. It really is VERY high and VERY unsafe. (John I don’t think you would have made it past the first 10 rungs). I felt a measure of sisterly pride though as Michelle decided after our little bush walk that she was going to have another go and she made it more than half way (about 40 metres I think) before fear and common sense got the better of her. So hats off to those who have climbed it – you are better people than we are, but we tried.

This is MZ's foot as she takes a picture of me and Suzannah from very high up the tree!!

We did take the time to go on a bit of a walk through the karri trees, which are truly amazing, they are just so massive and centuries old – even when struck by lightening they can still survive, check out some of the scenes below:

We also took a trip out to Big Brook dam, a man made lake that is Pemberton’s water source. We were told it was very pretty and they had created a couple of beach areas for swimming so we thought we would check it out. Clearly I am the only person however that seems to read the DANGER signs that are posted in places, as under the ‘No diving’ warning, was also the throw-away phrase ‘swimming in this water carries the risk of contracting amoebic meningitis’. I’m sorry, MENINGITIS???? No way was I getting in the water, although there were children and dogs merrily splashing about (and then shaking themselves over us as we tried to sunbathe). I also pointed out to Michelle that as I had a small cut on my foot (from my flip flops of all things) that perhaps having an open wound would also increase my risk of catching some hideous disease, to which Michelle helpfully responded ‘this is why I never read the signs...’ Anyway, after an hour or so of ‘sunbaking’ the flies were just too much and we retired to the civilisation of the deck of our chalet, where we had cold white wine waiting for us (from a local Pemberton vineyard, and appropriately called ‘Tree House’!! )

Our other great achievement today was our first gas barbeque of the trip – once Mich had gone and asked the lady to change the cylinder – we successfully lit the thing (although we all agreed that charcoal bbqs are far superior) and thoroughly enjoyed our burgers!

For those of you on wildlife watch – today’s new creature was a very pretty parrot, I’m sure it has a proper name but we no longer have our birds poster to identify it… oh and literally THOUSANDS of flies of all different sizes and varieties that our 40% deet infused Bushman bug spray did nothing to get rid of!!!

Reptilia!!!

4th December 2009

We left Margaret River today and headed south towards Pemberton. First stop though was Lake Cave, one of over 100 caves in the region. After paying an extortionate $19 to enter the caves, they then told you that there were over 300 steps before you even got into it! So we prepared ourselves for the experience by doing the Cave Crawl – a genuine caving experience!! Not really sure if its supposed to be done in a skirt and gold sandals but you know me, once I’ve seen someone else do something I’m never prepared to be outdone!!

As we headed over 60 feet down into the caves they did then also point out that the only real life forms in the caves were two different types of spider! Seriously, it was just as well that they’d already taken our money!

One of the most famous of the formations in the cave was the ‘Hanging Table’ – 5 tonnes (the equivalent of three small cars apparently!) of limestone suspended from the ceiling!

After emerging into the daylight we then headed further south to the Leeuwin lighthouse, just outside Augusta. It is the tallest lighthouse in Australia with its beam visible from 45km away and flashing every 7.5 seconds, apparently a signal unique to it in the whole of Australia. The other interesting fact is that it’s the only place in Australia where you can see the meeting of the Southern and Indian Oceans!

Whilst this was all fascinating and the views amazing from the top including being able to see dolphins, the highlight of our visit was when the lighthouse keeper told us to watch out for snakes on the way to the lighthouse – so we obviously thought that he was just winding up the English girls until we saw two eyes in the undergrowth and the most enormous scaled head! However, even Australian snakes don’t have legs and we suddenly realised that what was staring at us was actually a bobtail skink lizard!! So after laughing about the fact that we’d all jumped at the sight of it we didn’t happen to notice, until we nearly stepped on it, a huge brown snake crossing the pathway! Check out the pictures below!!

We then carried on to Pemberton – 130km through the Blackwood Forest of unchanging landscape!

Opposite our accommodation we decided to take a little detour to see the ‘Cascades’, rapids which make up part of the Gloucester National Park. This threw Kz into paroxysms of panic as she a) wasn’t sure if we should be taking a hire car onto an un-made up road b) didn’t have enclosed footwear in case of snakes c) realised that we hadn’t actually purchased a ticket for the national park d) brought her ‘Bushman’ bug spray with her and e) hadn’t mentally prepared herself to enter a hazardous environment today!!

So we left Kz having a not so quiet hyperventilating attack by the side of the rapids as Zanna and I went to explore! Amazingly, we all escaped unscathed and it made a pleasant end to the day, before we headed to our accommodation for the evening where we had a homemade hamper awaiting for us containing dinner, a view over the fields of the sunset and a couple of tame kookaburras to provide the entertainment…

Ps! Did I mention that we also saw a dead emu today – hoping for an alive one tomorrow!!